History

Much of Alex's childhood is unstated. However, at some point therein, her parents were killed. Likely by the Ancients and/or their servants. She was taken in, and raised by her grandfather, Edward. Presumably afterward, she lived a very normal life, or as normal as anyone's life could be when your guardian has books by Lovecraft, Poe, and anthologies on demon worship in Cambodia. Not to mention the fact the house was built over a city of evil. Despite all this, she maintained a very close relationship to her grandfather. She apparently spent most of that time in Rhode Island, as that is where her grandfather's large estate was located.

She left, however, to attend school in Washington state, completing her bachelor degree before going on to start a graduate program in abstract mathematics and number theory. Everything was going fine, until she received a call one early morning in 2000. Following said phone call, she proceeded to fly clear across the country to a crime scene that had waited the many hours of travel to be processed.

Her grandfather had been murdered, by an unknown, and apparently unseen assailant. Police were utterly baffled by the murder, and wrote it off as a freakish accident. Alex, however, was unconvinced, and began her own investigation of the suddenly alien house. In her grandfather's secret study, she discovered a book. Not just any book, this one was bound with human skin, and titled ominously, The Necromicon The Tome of Eternal Darkness.

So, being the curious, young adult she was, Alex decided to read the thing. After all, it was locked in a secret room, full of occult artifacts and lithographs of pillars of flesh. A book bound in human skin, with what looked like bones on the cover, had to be helpful.

Within its pages, Alex learned of a secret war between humanity and strange beings called the Ancients. One of which was doing its damnedest to enter her world, and take it over by force. They were working slowly, through their human agents, to manipulate the events of the world; orchestrating a World War in order to feed one of their dark guardians, killing Charlemagne, and many other such nefarious deeds, including some that took place in the very mansion she'd grown up in. However, others had been working against them, collecting the necessary materials to bring them down, making certain the artifacts (Essences of the various ancients) were delivered to "The Gathering of Light", namely, Alex's family manor. While she read, it seemed as if she really were there, in the story, and things began lurking in the house. She started seeing things, hearing her dead grandfather on the phone, children sobbing, whispering. Along the way, she followed clues to the location of the Essences, gathering them up, to whatever end. The Ancient's head servant, Pious, appeared to her in the form of her grandfather, attempting to dissuade her, but she ended up seeing through his illusions, and continued.

By the time she reached the end of the book (or at least, everything that had been written) she'd figured out a few things. Her family was charged with saving humanity, Pious was really good at impersonations, and, she needed to venture down into the giant city of evil below the house to do it. Armed with the Essences, the book's magic, and an enchanted sword, she headed off to throw a wrench into the Ancient's plans. The trick was, to interrupt the ritual that would summon the Ancient into her reality… by summoning up one of opposing alignment. Also by breaking Pious into tiny, skeletal pieces.

She aligned the runes, activated the right pylons… and instead of teleporting to the battleground, teleported into Nautilus instead.

Personality

Alex is a headstrong, capable young woman. When she sets her sights on something, it is rare to see her not achieve that goal. She will often go through whatever it is in her way without much thought to it. She is outspoken, not hesitating to tell people what she thinks of them, even if it is the local police. When told that nothing can be done to solve Edward's murder, she vows to stay behind in the mansion, looking for clues herself. During their fight, she openly defies Pious, swearing that he will not win, despite the fact she's well aware of his power, and what he could do to her.

However, it seems as if she needs a goal in mind. While she demonstrates great strength, it's driven towards <i>something</i>; such as her grandfather's murder, or, in the end, the destruction of Pious, and the thwarting of the Ancients. In a scene where she speaks with what she thinks is her grandfather's ghost, she appears much more fragile, confused, and looking for guidance. She sounds utterly lost, not knowing what to do or where to turn. It's clear she trusts Edward a great deal, and looks to him for help in a time when the world around her is going absolutely insane, and based on this conversation, it's not unlikely that, before this whole mess, she valued a very structured, ordered world.

Given her school record, with a bachelor's degree completed, and a master's in abstract math in the works, Alex looks to be quite intelligent as well. It's likely she's well-read, considering her grandfather's interest in history and literature, as well as the vast library of books in the house she grew up in. She catches on to the plan of the Ancients, and those who work against them, rather quickly, figuring out where she needs to go within the house, and what she needs to do in order to get the Essences, and disrupt the summoning spell.

But then her neat, ordered world started to fall apart, and Alex started seeing things. Based on the "sanity effects" of the game, and her reactions to them, she appears to experience extremely vivid auditory and visual hallucinations. These range from mild, such as whispering, footsteps, seeing books fly across a room, to severe; sobbing, chanting, seeing herself fall apart, experiencing perceived changes in size, or becoming a zombie. Alex is usually able to overcome the more severe hallucinations by virtue of pure stubborn will, and the mantra of "This isn't happening."

Abilities

Alex is a normal human being. She's in good physical condition, evidenced by her stamina, but nothing that would win her any marathons, or gold medals. Somehow, however, she is quite a capable hand with a firearm—either a small pistol, or a large shotgun. She's able to use a bladed weapon, but her attacks with these look more like her simply hacking and slashing at the enemy, rather than anything requiring finesse. In short, she could probably kill an average person with a blade, but anyone with any skill likely would take her down quickly.

Once Alex locates the book, the Tome of Eternal Darkness, it's all different. After reading it, the powers contained in the book allow her certain magical capabilities in the form of runes. By combining the runes into spells, she is capable of:

Along with the regular runes, each Ancient possesses its own alignment rune, which allows the spell to draw its power from them. Alex is capable of using all four with the power of the Tome—Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth, Xel'latoth, and Mantorok. Catch is, she needs the Tome in order to do any magic whatsoever.